(The Extreme) 100 Day Walking Challenge

2021-05-15 Personal Thoughts

In January I had a good call with my friend Braggy in Sydney. The insight was, that 2020 was different to what I/we expected, but with 20/20 hint-sight it was not necessarily a bad a year (at least not for me).

The pandemic forced me to question what I am doing and why I am doing it and how I am doing it in a lot of interesting ways. I will always remember 2020 as a year where I grew a lot, albeit in unexpected ways/directions.

The list of things that I did in 2020 that I would probably not have done without the pandemic is long …

  • spend a lot of time with Christina and Alexandros
  • produced a podcast with Hermann
  • did (organized/executed) a virtual engineering summit for Community (my first one; interesting experience)
  • did (another) Advent of Code (in Hamler)
  • turned my living-room into a mini-cottage (including building a very nice lightening solution for the dinning table)

Last week I finished another pandemic project: I finished the 100 Day Walking Challenge.

I walked between 30 and 50 mins every day for 100 days. At the end this accumulated to 525472 steps (which is nothing compared to the longest running streak … ever). When I started the challenge (on Feb., 01st) I did not know what to expect. I was half excited and half scared. I was thinking and hoping that the challenge will help me with my physical fitness.

Not to surprisingly I got that (all) wrong. Over the 100 days I did not loose any weight and did not really become any fitter, but … became much more balanced and less irritable towards the end of my working day. Means the biggest gain was (much) better mental health/fitness.

Going forward I am not aiming tor the 19032 days, but will make sure I am walking/hiking 5 out of 7 days.

What a wonderful experience!!!